Home 
MANILA, Philippines -- The government is checking reports that 10 overseas Filipino workers were among the 16 people killed when a helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff at southern Afghanistan's largest NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) base Sunday, Vice President Noli de Castro said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Philippine embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was coordinating with authorities in Kabul to verify if there were Filipinos in the helicopter crash, De Castro, who is also presidential adviser for overseas Filipino workers (OFW), told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).
If there were, De Castro would also want to know how the OFWs were able to enter Afghanistan despite the government?s deployment ban to the war-torn country.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that it would take at least 30 hours to properly identify the victims.
Conejos said that Philippine ambassador to Islamabad, Jaime Yambao, was in Kabul to check the reports.
?We?re checking first whether there were Filipino casualties as reported. If yes, we want to know how they were able to enter Afghanistan because we have a deployment ban there,? Conejos said.
According to reports, there were no indications that the crash of the Mi-8 civilian helicopter at southern Kandahar Air Field was caused by hostile fire.
A NATO statement said 16 people died in the crash and that the conditions of five additional casualties were not immediately known.
The Russian news agency Interfax said the Mi-8 was owned by the Russian air company Vertikal-T. It quoted Russian charge d'affaires Andrei Vadov as saying there were no Russians among the 16 killed. The Mi-8 helicopter can seat up to 24 people.
Civilian helicopters help ferry civilian contractors and supplies to small military outposts across Afghanistan.
Last week, 13 OFWs bound for Afghanistan were off-loaded from a plane at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) by the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment headed by De Castro.
De Castro said some OFWs were able defy the ban and enter Afghanistan via Dubai undetected by Philippine authorities.
